System and method of flow source discovery

ABSTRACT

An example method comprises receiving flow packets from network traffic analyzing platforms, for each particular flow packet: identify the particular flow packet as belonging to one of at least two flow packet types based on a format, if the particular flow packet is sFlow, determine if the particular flow packet is an sFlow sample, counter record, or a third packet type, if the particular flow packet is the sFlow sample or counter record, identify a flow source of the particular flow packet and at least one metric, and update a flow source data structure else ignore the particular flow packet, and if the particular flow packet is a second flow packet type: if the particular flow packet is of a format that matches a template, identify the flow source, and update the flow source data structure to include the identified flow source and the at least one metric.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 17/014,878, filed Sep. 8, 2020 and entitled, “System and Methodof Flow Source Discovery,” which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 16/234,402, filed Dec. 27, 2018 and entitled,“System and Method of Flow Source Discovery,” which claims benefit ofU.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/611,892, filed Dec. 29, 2017and entitled “Systems and Methods for Performance Management of DataInfrastructure,” which is incorporated by reference herein. In addition,the following applications filed on Dec. 27, 2018 are incorporated byreference herein: U.S. Nonprovisional patent application Ser. No.16/234,353 entitled “System and Method of Application Discovery,” U.S.Nonprovisional patent application Ser. No. 16/234,384 entitled “Systemsand Methods of Application-Aware Improvement of Storage NetworkTraffic,” U.S. Nonprovisional patent application Ser. No. 16/234,424entitled “System and Method of Dynamically Assigning Device Tiers Basedon Application,” U.S. Nonprovisional patent application Ser. No.16/234,440 entitled “Systems and Methods of Discovering and TraversingCoexisting Topologies,” and U.S. Nonprovisional patent application Ser.No. 16/234,452 entitled “System and Method of Cross-Silo Discovery andMapping of Storage, Hypervisors and Other Network Objects.”

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

Embodiments of the present invention related generally to discoveringdata flow sources and destinations on an enterprise system.

BACKGROUND

Complexity of enterprise networks has increased to a point where eveninformation technology (IT) administrators may not have a clear pictureof the network utilization of the enterprise network. Enterprisenetworks are increasingly moving towards a combination of on-premise andcloud-based infrastructure, making the ability to determine computingand storage resources associated with business-related application moredifficult.

Corporations demand acceptable levels of performance, reliability,redundancy, and security from its computing and storage devices. One wayto achieve performance, reliability, and redundancy is to provide moreresources than the computing environment would ever need. Unfortunately,the cost of IP equipment, software and personnel can be prohibitivelyexpensive, and would run contrary to an overall goal of an enterprise ofprofitability. Every corporation must strike a balance between their thecost of additional computing and storage versus performance, reliabilityand redundancy benefits of the additional computing and storageresources.

One way for IT administrators to monitor aspects of the increasinglycomplex enterprise network is with assistance from a wide variety ofstandalone and integrated software tools available to aid in themonitoring various aspects of the enterprise network. However, intraditional network monitoring systems, the IT administrator may need toconfigure the network monitoring system. The configuration may includenotifying the network monitoring system of elements of the switch fabric(such as switches or routers) to monitor, the version of the monitoringsoftware integrated into the switches, and the metrics that the networkmonitoring software will output.

As the enterprise networks get increasingly complex, routers or otherelements of the switch fabric may be left out of the configuration ofthe network monitoring system. The disadvantage of these traditionalnetwork monitoring systems is that by manually informing the monitoringsystem the switches or routers to observe, the real potentialbottlenecks of the network may be missed. Furthermore, each softwaretool, whether standalone or integrated, may have a vested interest inprotecting their intellectual property, and not allowing theirrespective software to share information with others. In addition, byinforming the network monitoring system of the metrics of interest, the“bigger picture” may be missed.

Further, each of the variety of traditional network monitoring systemsavailable to a user of the enterprise network may provide data relevantonly to a specific device, or type of device, making it difficult toobtain a complete view of data traffic.

For example, when a user complains of slow response of a virtual desktopapplication of the enterprise network, the IT administrator may run adiagnostic using a network monitoring system to determine the routersand switches connecting the physical servers, cloud servers and storagedevices on using network performance monitoring tools. The networkperformance monitoring tools may determine that performance issues existon the switch fabric of the enterprise network. A common solution to theissue may be to increase the number of routers and switches of theenterprise network in order to increase the bandwidth capacity.Increasing the number of routers and switches, however, may not resultin an improvement in response time of the virtual desktop application.The monitoring system connected to the router may not be able to pinpoint a reason for the slow response of the virtual desktop applicationsince this software would only have access to traffic data on specificrouters, and not the performance of other entities that impactperformance of the virtual desktop application. For example, the reasonfor the slow response of the virtual desktop application may be aparticular server connected to a router associated with performance of aVDI application. That particular server may be taking up the utilizationbandwidth of the router. The network performance monitoring tool may notbe able to identify the server as impacting performance and, as such,the reason for the slow response of the virtual desktop application isactually obscured.

SUMMARY

An example system comprise one or more processors. The memory containinginstructions configured to control the one or more processors to receivea period of time for flow source discovery of an enterprise network,receive a plurality of flow packets from network traffic analyzingplatforms, the network traffic analyzing platforms being incommunication with the enterprise network, the plurality of flow packetsindicating network traffic into and out of flow sources of theenterprise network, at least one flow source of the flow sources of theenterprise network being a router of switch fabric integrated within theenterprise network, for each particular flow packet of the plurality offlow packets: identify the particular flow packet of the plurality offlow packets as belonging to one of at least two flow packet types basedat least in part on a format of the particular flow packet, if theparticular flow packet is an sFlow flow packet, determine if theparticular flow packet is an sFlow sample, an sFlow counter record, or athird sFlow packet type, if the particular flow packet is the sFlowsample or the sFlow counter record, identify a flow source of theparticular flow packet and at least one metric of the network trafficdata, the flow source being one of a plurality of flow sources of theenterprise network, and update a flow source data structure to includethe identified flow source and the at least one metric of the networktraffic data, if the particular flow packet is the third sFlow packettype, ignore the particular flow packet, and if the particular flowpacket is a second flow packet type, the second flow packet type beingdifferent from an sFlow flow packet type: if the particular flow packetis of a format that matches one of a plurality of template recordsstored in a template datastore, identify the flow source associated withthe particular flow packet and at least one metric of the networktraffic data, and update the flow source data structure to include theidentified flow source and the at least one metric of the networktraffic data, and if the format of the particular flow packet does notmatch one of the plurality of template records, ignore the flowparticular packet, and after termination of the period of time, outputthe flow source data structure, the flow source data structure combininginformation from the sFlow flow packets and information from the flowpackets of the second flow packet type, the flow source data structureindicating a plurality of flow sources including the identified flowsources as well as a plurality of attributes of the network traffic databased on the at least one metric of the network traffic data of theplurality of flow packets, the flow source data structure enabling anoperator of the enterprise network to control and monitor networktraffic of the enterprise network.

In various embodiments, the system further comprising wherein themetrics of the network traffic data including at least one of a sourceentity of the enterprise network, a destination entity of the enterprisenetwork, the source entity being one of a plurality of entities of theenterprise network and the destination entity of the enterprise beingone of the plurality of entities of the enterprise network. In someembodiments, the system further comprising the metrics of the networktraffic data including at least one of a type of flow source, read speedtotal byte count, incoming byte count, outgoing byte count, incoming bitrate, outgoing bit rate, and total packet rate.

In some embodiments, the memory containing instructions furtherconfigured to control the one or more processors to: identifying a firstflow packet of one of at least two packet types, the first flow packetindicating a first flow source, a first value of a first metric of thenetwork traffic data and a first value of a second metric of the networktraffic data, identifying a second flow packet of one of at least twopacket types, the second flow packet indicating a second flow source,the first value of the first metric of the network traffic data, and thefirst value of the second metric of the network traffic data anddetermining that the first flow packet and the second flow packetrepresent duplicate network traffic. In one embodiment, the first flowpacket and the second flow packet are of different packet types. Inanother embodiment, the first flow packet and the second flow packet areof the same packet type.

In various embodiments, the flow source data structure is a table. Insome embodiments, the flow source data structure is a chart. In oneembodiment, the second flow packet type is a Netflow packet. In someembodiments, the second flow packet type is a Jflow packet.

An example method comprises receiving a period of time for flow sourcediscovery of an enterprise network, receiving a plurality of flowpackets from network traffic analyzing platforms, the network trafficanalyzing platforms being in communication with the enterprise network,the plurality of flow packets indicating network traffic into and out offlow sources of the enterprise network, at least one flow source of theflow sources of the enterprise network being a router of switch fabricintegrated within the enterprise network, for each particular flowpacket of the plurality of flow packets: identify the particular flowpacket of the plurality of flow packets as belonging to one of at leasttwo flow packet types based at least in part on a format of theparticular flow packet, if the particular flow packet is an sFlow flowpacket, determine if the particular flow packet is an sFlow sample, ansFlow counter record, or a third sFlow packet type, if the particularflow packet is the sFlow sample or the sFlow counter record, identify aflow source of the particular flow packet and at least one metric of thenetwork traffic data, the flow source being one of a plurality of flowsources of the enterprise network, and update a flow source datastructure to include the identified flow source and the at least onemetric of the network traffic data, if the particular flow packet is thethird sFlow packet type, ignore the particular flow packet, and if theparticular flow packet is a second flow packet type, the second flowpacket type being different from an sFlow flow packet type: if theparticular flow packet is of a format that matches one of a plurality oftemplate records stored in a template datastore, identify the flowsource associated with the particular flow packet and at least onemetric of the network traffic data, and update the flow source datastructure to include the identified flow source and the at least onemetric of the network traffic data, and if the format of the particularflow packet does not match one of the plurality of template records,ignore the flow particular packet, and after termination of the periodof time, output the flow source data structure, the flow source datastructure combining information from the sFlow flow packets andinformation from the flow packets of the second flow packet type, theflow source data structure indicating a plurality of flow sourcesincluding the identified flow sources as well as a plurality ofattributes of the network traffic data based on the at least one metricof the network traffic data of the plurality of flow packets, the flowsource data structure enabling an operator of the enterprise network tocontrol and monitor network traffic of the enterprise network.

An example computer program product comprising a computer readablestorage medium having program code embodied therewith, the program codeexecutable by a computing system to cause the computing system toperform: receiving a period of time for flow source discovery of anenterprise network, receiving a plurality of flow packets from networktraffic analyzing platforms, the network traffic analyzing platformsbeing in communication with the enterprise network, the plurality offlow packets indicating network traffic into and out of flow sources ofthe enterprise network, at least one flow source of the flow sources ofthe enterprise network being a router of switch fabric integrated withinthe enterprise network, for each particular flow packet of the pluralityof flow packets: identify the particular flow packet of the plurality offlow packets as belonging to one of at least two flow packet types basedat least in part on a format of the particular flow packet, if theparticular flow packet is an sFlow flow packet, determine if theparticular flow packet is an sFlow sample, an sFlow counter record, or athird sFlow packet type, if the particular flow packet is the sFlowsample or the sFlow counter record, identify a flow source of theparticular flow packet and at least one metric of the network trafficdata, the flow source being one of a plurality of flow sources of theenterprise network, and update a flow source data structure to includethe identified flow source and the at least one metric of the networktraffic data, if the particular flow packet is the third sFlow packettype, ignore the particular flow packet, and if the particular flowpacket is a second flow packet type, the second flow packet type beingdifferent from an sFlow flow packet type: if the particular flow packetis of a format that matches one of a plurality of template recordsstored in a template datastore, identify the flow source associated withthe particular flow packet and at least one metric of the networktraffic data, and update the flow source data structure to include theidentified flow source and the at least one metric of the networktraffic data, and if the format of the particular flow packet does notmatch one of the plurality of template records, ignore the flowparticular packet, and after termination of the period of time, outputthe flow source data structure, the flow source data structure combininginformation from the sFlow flow packets and information from the flowpackets of the second flow packet type, the flow source data structureindicating a plurality of flow sources including the identified flowsources as well as a plurality of attributes of the network traffic databased on the at least one metric of the network traffic data of theplurality of flow packets, the flow source data structure enabling anoperator of the enterprise network to control and monitor networktraffic of the enterprise network.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts a block diagram of an enterprise system capable ofdiscovering data flow sources of the enterprise system.

FIG. 2 depicts a block diagram of an example of a flow source discoverysystem according to some embodiments.

FIG. 3 depicts a flowchart of a flow source discovery process of anenterprise system according to some embodiments.

FIG. 4 depicts in further detail of one step of flow source discoveryflowchart according to some embodiments.

FIG. 5 depicts a block diagram of an example enterprise system accordingto some embodiments.

FIG. 6 depicts an example flow source discovery interface according tosome embodiments.

FIG. 7 depicts an example topology of an enterprise network according tosome embodiments.

FIG. 8 depicts an example flow source discovery alarm interfaceaccording to some embodiments.

FIG. 9 depicts an example output attributes associated with entities ofthe switch fabric according to some embodiments.

FIG. 10 depicts a block diagram illustrating entities of an examplemachine according to some embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Various embodiments provide customers to deliver on complex requirementsof their application infrastructure. Systems discussed herein mayprovide insights into the performance and availability of the end-to-endsystem—across physical, virtual and cloud environments. The system mayintelligently capture, correlate, and/or analyze both breadth and depthof data, transforming data regarding an assets/applications of anenterprise network into answers and actionable insights. This allows thepromotion of performance-based Service Level Agreements, changing thevalue of the infrastructure. With these insights, user may be able totake control of their environment, accurately inform collaborativedialogues, and drive business outcomes.

A network traffic monitoring system may be used to give ITadministrators an awareness of data traffic flowing through the routersand switches of an enterprise network. A flow in an enterprise networkmay represent a communication between a source internet protocol (IP)address and a destination IP address. In some examples, the flow is acommunication between a source IP address and a transmission controlprotocol (TCP) port. In other examples, the flow represents acommunication between a source device and a destination device. In someembodiments, the flow is a continuous conversation between the source IPaddress and the destination IP address or the TCP port. The flow may berepresented in a topology as a data path. FIG. 5 depicts an example of aflow that includes a communication between a source IP addressrepresenting host 510 and a destination IP address representing host550. In this example, the flow includes data paths 520A, 520B, 520C, and520D.

A flow source may be any switch or router (e.g., network device) in thedata path that may provide a view of the flow and may generate a flowrecord for each flow. In one example, a switch fabric may include anynumber of network devices (e.g., switch or router) and therefore anynumber of flow sources.

It will be appreciate that there may be any number of flow sources in adata path. In one example, FIG. 5 depicts a first router that isconnected to a source device, and a second router that is connected to adestination device. In FIG. 5 , switch 502 and switch 506 may each beflow sources of the flow which includes 520A, 520B, 520C, and 520D.

A flow record documents communication between entities of the enterprisenetwork. Entities are logical and intuitive groupings of systemwidedevices and workloads that may be based on function, correlation, and/orinterdependency. Entities enable users to logically group system-wideresources, from physical devices to application workloads, in order toprovide the authoritative insights required to understand how resourcesand applications are performing. IT teams may configure entities to showall of the resources supporting a specific application, business unit,or tier of service.

The flow record may be provided by one or more flow sources found alongthe data path. Each flow record may include statistics or metricsregarding a particular flow, including but not limited to, IP address,destination IP address, next hop address, number of bytes, and/or theduration of the communication. In some embodiments, the flow source mayaggregate one or more flows between the same source IP address and thedestination IP address into one single flow with an aggregation ofstatistics or metrics.

There are different types of flow records and formatted in differentways. Cisco routers are often integrated with traffic monitoringsoftware such as a NetFlow software platform. Traffic monitoringsoftware such as NetFlow and the like may be configured to package oneor more data packets into an export flow record. For example, theNetFlow software platform may include several components including aflow exporter, a flow collector, and an analysis application. The flowexporter may aggregate flow records into one or more data packets. Theflow collector may collect, store, and pre-process flow data from theflow records received from the flow exporter. The analysis applicationmay receive flow data and analyze the flow data. The flow sourcediscovery system may retrieve data from the flow record received fromthe flow exporter. The flow source discovery system may receive datapackets from one or more traffic monitoring software such as a NetFlowsoftware platform.

In some embodiments, an IT administrator may schedule a data flow sourcediscovery process and determine the start, end, and/or duration of thedata flow source discovery process. A data flow discovery process is aprocess in which sources of data flow (e.g., flow sources) areidentified within an enterprise network (e.g., including local, remote,and/or cloud components). In some embodiments, the IT administrator mayschedule a data flow source discovery process for a period of time suchas 24 hours. In various embodiments, the period of time is 5 days, 7days, or 1 month.

In various embodiments, the data flow source discovery system mayreceive data packets from a particular traffic monitoring software(e.g., the particular traffic monitoring software may be determined bythe IT administrator or by the data flow source discovery) as well asdata packets from other sources (e.g., other traffic monitoring softwareand/or data packets received from probes within the enterprise network).The data flow source discovery system may then retrieve data from thedata packets using different templates for data packets from differenttraffic monitoring software and then construct a topology and/or listingof flow sources, communication with flow sources, and entities thatcommunicate with or through flow sources.

In some embodiments, the flow source discovery process may obtain realtime views of the network traffic of the enterprise network, and allowthe IT administrator to determine causes of slow-flowing networks. Forexample, the flow source discovery process may identify flow sources aswell as current metrics associated with data flowing from flow sources,performance of the flow sources, or performance of entities (e.g.,applications and/or devices executing specific applications) to enablethe IT administrator to identify failing hardware, improperly configuredsystems, bandwidth hogs, and/or congestion due to increased networktraffic. The flow source discovery system may determine an amount ofbandwidth consumed by a particular IP node, determine the bandwidthusage of specific applications, and/or determine network anomalies suchas distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, SPAM, BotNets, abnormaldownloads/uploads, etc.

As discussed herein, the flow source discovery system may be configuredto identify flow sources of the enterprise network. In other words, theflow source discovery system may detect and identify routers or switches(e.g., network devices) of the enterprise network and identify thenetwork utilization of various entities of the network traffic.

In the traditional network monitoring system, the IT administrator maybe required to manually identify the routers or switches of theenterprise network to monitor. As the complexity of enterprise networksincrease, routers or switches of the enterprise network which may be thecause of network traffic bottle necks may be missed by the traditionalnetwork monitoring system. By relying on the flow source discovery toidentify routers, switches and other flow sources of the enterprisenetwork, the chances of inadvertently leaving out a business criticalcomponent of the switch fabric will be reduced. Similarly, devices andentities that impact performance can be more readily identified. As aresult of this technical solution to a technical problem, systems andmethods discussed herein address a problem that has been created bycomputer technology.

In some embodiments, the results of the flow source discovery processmay be used in an analysis of discovering applications on the enterprisenetwork. The flow source discovery process may provide real-timevisibility into the network utilization of entities and applicationsacross physical, virtual, and cloud computing environments.

For example, the flow source discovery process may determine the impactof hosts on other hosts and determines how those impacts may affectedapplications and storage. A host is any device on the enterprise networkthat may offer information resources, services, and applications tousers or other nodes on the network.

The flow source discovery process may deduplicate flow records fromredundant flow sources which can misrepresent an actual amount oftraffic reported. This may be an issue that arises when a router orswitch in the enterprise network is being monitored by more than oneinstance of or type traffic monitoring software.

The flow source discovery process may collect traffic data in the formof data packets from a wide variety of routers and switches manufacturedby different companies. The data packets collected from the variety ofrouters may be in different formats. The flow source discovery systemmay assess the data packets to identify the flow sources responsible forgenerating the flow records. The results of the data flow sourcediscovery process may be used to detect network anomalies, controlbandwidth utilization, optimize application performance, and/ortroubleshoot problems. Examples of network anomalies include DDoSattacks, SPAM, BotNets, abnormal downloads/uploads, or the like. Thedata flow source discovery system may control bandwidth utilization bymonitoring data traffic metrics, and providing alarms or alerts forvarious data traffic metrics such as read response time, fabrictransmission errors, link errors, link transmission errors, networkusage rate, port utilization, etc.

The flow source discovery process may provide a user of the enterprisesystem the ability to configure which attributes of the flow source(e.g., data traffic metrics) that the user is interested in.

In some embodiments, an initial flow source discovery process may beinitiated when the flow source discovery system is first introduced toenterprise network. In the initial flow source discovery process, theflow source discovery system may identify flow sources of the enterprisenetwork as well as a set of attributes or data traffic metrics for anynumber of flow sources. The data traffic metric may include, forexample, total byte count, incoming/outgoing byte count,incoming/outgoing bit rate, total packet rate, and/or incoming/outgoingendpoint count. The flow source discovery system may output the datatraffic metrics in the form of a data structure (e.g., data table,graph, or other structure). The flow source discovery process mayprovide the identified flow sources in the form of a chart or a table.In some embodiments, the flow source discovery process may organize andoutput the data traffic metrics. For example, the flow source discoveryprocess may provide top conversations as seen by each software platformsuch as NetFlow, top IP address by total bit rate, and top IP address byreceive or transmit bit rate.

In response to the output of the identified flow sources and theirassociated attributes, the flow source discovery process may receivefeedback from the IT administrator. In some embodiments, the receivedfeedback includes a list of entities of the switch fabric to continuemonitoring. The received feedback may also include a second listcontaining attributes of switch fabric for continued monitoring. Theuser of the enterprise system may determine a subset of entities of theswitch fabric and the data traffic metrics associated with the entitiesof the switch fabric that the user wants to monitor based on an initialoutput of the flow source discovery system. In subsequent flow sourcediscovery processes, a flow source discovery system may only monitorentities of the switch fabric that the user chooses. In someembodiments, in subsequent flow source discovery processes, the flowsource discovery system may output only selected (i.e., subscribed) datatraffic metrics.

The flow source discovery system may aid in discovering applications ofthe enterprise network by using heuristic analysis to determine possibleroles of network endpoints. For example, the data flow source discoverysystem may determine that a particular group of IP addresses arecommunicating with four particular servers, specifically, on port 443 ofthe four particular servers. Through heuristic analysis, the applicationdiscovery system 180 of FIG. 1 may determine that the four particularservers may be web servers or a combination of different serversperforming different functions.

FIG. 1 depicts a block diagram of an enterprise system 100 including aflow source discovery system 170 capable of discovering data flowsources of the enterprise system. In this example, the enterprise system100 comprises an enterprise network 105, a network traffic analyzingsoftware platform 150, and an infrastructure performance management(IPM) appliance 160. The enterprise network 105 includes a storagedevice 110, a server/host 120, a switch fabric 130, and a traffic accesspoints (TAP) 140. The IPM appliance 160 includes a flow source discoverysystem 170 and an application discovery system 180.

Storage devices 110 of the enterprise system 100 includes any number ofstorage devices that stores data. In one embodiment, the storage devices110 includes a disk array. In some embodiments, the storage devices 110includes a storage array network (SAN). In various embodiments, thestorage device is cloud storage.

Server/host 120 may be any digital device with an instance of anoperating system. In some embodiments, one of any number of hosts 120may be a physical computer managed by Microsoft Windows. Hosts 120 mayinclude instances of UNIX, Red Hat, Linux and others. In someembodiments, hosts 120 may include one or more virtual machines.

The switch fabric 130 may provide communication between any two entitiesof the enterprise system 100 such as the storage devices 110, theserver/host 120, the TAP 140 and the network traffic analyzing softwareplatform 150. The switch fabric 130 may use packet switching to receive,process and forward data from a source device to a destination device.The switch fabric 130 may refer to switches (e.g., flow sources) thatare used to direct and assist in communication of information of theenterprise network 105.

The TAP 140 may provide connectivity to links between storage ports ofthe storage device 110 and switches of switch fabric 130. In variousembodiments, the TAP 140 may provide connectivity on both sides offabric-based storage virtualizers. The TAP 140 is an optical splitterwhich provides a copy of data passing through a fiber optic channel ofthe enterprise network 105 without affecting the integrity of the data.The fiber optic channel connecting storage devices with servers of theenterprise network. The copy may be used for real time performancemonitoring of the traffic travelling through the fiber optic channel.

The network traffic analyzing software platform 150 may discover flowsources on the enterprise network 105. The network traffic analyzingsoftware platform 150 may be any third-party platform that is integratedinto routers or switches by their respective manufacturers to aid usersin monitoring performance of traffic data entering and exiting thatspecific switching hardware. An example of a network traffic analyzingsoftware platform 150 is Netflow. Although the network traffic analyzingsoftware platform 150 of a particular provider may perform some flowsource detection, the network traffic analyzing software platform 150may provide only limited information about the flow sources (e.g.,limited metrics) and may not include other switches of othermanufacturers (i.e., that are not a part of that particular providersnetwork traffic analyzing software platform 150).

In some embodiments, the IT administrator of the enterprise network 105may schedule flow source discovery process to occur during specifiedtimes of the day and/or during particular days of the week. The networktraffic analyzing software platform 150 (e.g., NetFlow) may includecomponents such as a flow exporter, a flow collector and an analysisapplication. NetFlow and other may have different flow exporters, flowcollectors, and analysis applications which exports, collects, andanalyzes data packets in different ways, and may focus on differentaspects of the data traffic metrics.

The flow exporter may aggregate flow records into data packets andexport data packets to one or more flow collectors. The flow exportermay aggregate flow records with the same IP source address and the sameIP destination address over a period of time. For example, if two IPaddresses have 100 different conversation during a one minute interval,these 100 different conversations may not be saved as 100 flow records.The flow exports may save the 100 different conversations as one flowrecord with an aggregate set of data traffic metrics. In someembodiments, the flow exporter outputs a new flow record when itdetermines that a flow is finished. This may be accomplished by flowaging. For example, when a router detects new data traffic for anexisting flow, the router may reset an aging counter. In variousembodiments, a TCP session termination signal in a TCP flow causes therouter to determine that the flow is finished. The network trafficanalyzing software platform 150 may be configured to output a flowrecord at a fixed interval even if the flow is still ongoing.

The flow collector may collect, store, and pre-process flow data fromthe flow records received from the flow exporter. The analysisapplication may receive and analyze the flow data. In some embodiments,the flow collector may package any number of flow records into anynumber of data packets.

The flow source discovery system 170 may receive a request to initiate aflow source discovery process of the enterprise network 105. Thisrequest may occur after the IPM appliance 160 is first installed intothe enterprise network 105. In some embodiments, once initiated, theflow source discovery process may continue until it is completed, andsubsequent flow source discovery processes may run according to aschedule or at predetermined times as controlled by the ITadministrator. The flow source discovery system 170 may determine thatthe flow source discovery process is complete after retrieving trafficdata from the one or more network traffic analyzing software platform(s)for a predetermined interval of time.

In some embodiments, the flow source discovery system 170 may receiveany number of data packets from the flow collector of the networktraffic analyzing software platform 150 and divert at least a portion ofthe signals being transmitted from the flow exporter component to theflow collector component. The flow source discovery system 170 mayassess any number of data packets and determine a flow type. A flow typeis a type of packet based on a type of a network traffic analyzingsoftware platform. For example, a flow type may be a NetFlow packet, ansFlow data packet, Jflow data packet, Cflow data packet, or other typeof packet. The NetFlow data packet may be generated by the NetFlowsoftware platform found in Cisco switching hardware. The sFlow datapacket may be generated by software platform found in Juniper switchinghardware. The Cflow data packet may be generated by a software platformfound in switching hardware manufactured by Alcatel-Lucent.

The flow source discovery system 170 may identify the type of datapacket and parse the flow records from the data packet using a template(e.g., to retrieve needed data from the correct portions of the datapacket). The template is a map indicating how all or some informationwithin a data packet may be formatted. Without a template, informationfrom the data packet may not be retrieved because the information willnot be in an understood location within the packet. Similarly, if thetemplate is not correct, information from the data packet may not beretrieved.

In some embodiments, the data packet includes any number of flowrecords, a template record, and a packet header. Any number of flowrecords may provide information associated with each flow. In variousembodiments, the data packet includes one or more template identifiers.

Each of the flow records may be generated by one of any number of flowsources in a data path. The data path may include any number of flowsources, and may result in duplicate flow records. The flow sourcediscovery system 170 may optionally deduplicate any duplicate flowrecords which may misrepresent the actual amount of data traffic that isreported.

A template record may be used to recognize a format of the subsequentflow records that may be received in the current or future data packets.For example, there may be different formats (e.g., and thereforedifferent template records to recognize the different formats) for sFlowdata packets, Jflow data packets, and Cflow data packets. In variousembodiments, different versions of the same type of data packet may havedifferent templates. For example, there are multiple versions of Cisco'sNetFlow software platform, and each version may have a differenttemplate record because data from different versions of the platform mayhave different formats. In some embodiments, the flow source discoverysystem 170 may need to match the template record of an incoming datapacket with a template record stored in the flow source discovery system170 before the incoming data packet can be parsed. In some embodiments,the flow source discovery process may reject a data packet if datapacket does not include a template record that the flow source discoverysystem 170 recognizes. A template record is data including oridentifying a template.

A packet header may include information regarding the packet, such asthe version of the network traffic analyzing software platformassociated with the data packet, the number of flow records containedwithin the data packet, and a sequence number. The sequence number mayaid in detecting lost data packets.

A template identifier (ID) may be a number which may distinguish onetemplate record from other template records produced by the same exportdevice. A flow collector may receive export packets from differentswitching hardware devices, and the uniqueness of template records maynot be guaranteed across different switching hardware devices. In someembodiments, the flow collect may store the IP address of the switchinghardware device that produced the template ID in order to assist in theenforcement of uniqueness.

In order to parse the data packet to obtain any number of flow records,the flow source discovery system 170 may match a template record to aformat of a data packet in order to parse the received data packet. Insome embodiments, the flow source discovery system 170 scans a header ofthe data packet to identify a template. The flow source discovery system170 may retrieves data from a data packet based on a template and thendetermine if the retrieved data includes expected information. Once thecorrect template is identified, the template may be used to assist inparsing information from the data packet.

The result of the parsing of the data packet may be a flow recordrepresenting a communication between two entities of the enterprisenetwork 105. The flow source discovery system 170 may validate the flowrecord and discover and/or identify a flow source of the enterprisenetwork 105, along with attributes (e.g., metrics) associated with thediscovered flow source. The attributes associated with the discoveredflow source may include the type of flow source, total byte count,incoming/outgoing byte count, incoming/outgoing bit rate, total packetrate and/or incoming/outgoing endpoint count. In some embodiments, allor some attributes may be found in the flow record. In variousembodiments, the flow source discovery system 170 may assess flowrecords to identify performance attributes based on data from anidentified flow source in order to generate attributes/metrics regardingthe flow source (e.g., generate the attributes/metrics in real time forcurrent performance and/or generate aggregations of attributes/metricsto show performance over time).

The flow source discovery system may provide the discovered flow sourcesand attributes/metrics associated with the discovered flow sources inthe form of a table or a chart. In some embodiments, the flow sourcediscovery system may provide attributes/metrics of the discovered flowsources, or data traffic metrics in a meaningful way and output graphsorganizing top IP address by total bit rate, top conversations as seenby the network traffic analyzing software platform 150 (e.g., NetFlow),etc. In an example output 900 of FIG. 9 , the flow source discoverysystem is configured to output top IP by receive bit rate as seen byNetFlow in the form of a chart in area 930 of FIG. 9 .

In some embodiments, the flow source discovery system may determine thatthe flow source discovery process is completed, or is suspended when anynumber of trigger conditions is satisfied. The trigger conditions mayinclude, for example, a scheduled flow source discovery time frame haspassed or input from the user to suspend or end the flow sourcediscovery process. The flow source discovery system may suspend the flowsource discovery process when the end of the flow source discovery timeframe has ended.

The flow source discovery system 170 may receive input from the user ofthe enterprise network 105 to suspend or end the flow source discoveryprocess. In some embodiments, the flow source discovery process issuspended when an entity utilization of a predetermined number ofentities of the switch fabric 130 is greater than an entity utilizationthreshold (e.g., a desired number of entities is found). In someembodiments, a flow source discovery process may be suspended until thecurrent time equals the beginning of a subsequent scheduled flow sourcediscovery time frame.

The application discovery system 180 may receive from the flow sourcediscovery system 170 possible roles of network endpoints. These possiblenetwork endpoint roles may be used by the application discovery system180 to discover applications through heuristic analysis. For example,data received from a known flow source (e.g., discovered by the flowsource discovery system 170) may be assessed to determine whatapplications provided and/or received information from the data. Datareceived from a known flow source may be, in one example, intercepted orcopied from a TAP that interfaces with communication paths of theenterprise network 105. Based on that information as well as the type ofcommunication, the frequency of communication, and/or the like, theapplication discovery system 180 or the flow source discovery system 170may label a network endpoint with one or more roles performed within theenterprise network 105.

FIG. 2 depicts a block diagram of an example of a flow source discoverysystem 170 according to some embodiments. The flow source discoverysystem 170 includes a communication module 202, a input module 204, aflow source discovery module 206, a scheduling module 208, a networktraffic integration module 210, an infrastructure module 212, an alarmmodule 214, a reporting module 216, an input datastore 218, anattributes datastore 220, a flow source datastore 222, an infrastructuredatastore 224, and a template datastore 226.

The communication module 202 may send and receive requests or databetween any of the network traffic analyzing software platform 150, theapplication discovery system 180 and the flow source discovery system170. The communication module 202 may receive a request from the ITadministrator of the enterprise network 105 to schedule a flow sourcediscovery process to start at a specified day of the week and/or time ofthe day and/or duration. The communication module may send the requestreceived from the IT administrator to the scheduling module 208.

The communication module 202 may receive from the network trafficanalyzing software platform 150 any number of data packets andoptionally send any number of data packets to the input datastore 218.In some embodiments, the communication may send the received pluralityof data packets from the network traffic analyzing software platform 150to the flow source discovery module 206.

During the flow source discovery process, the flow source discoverymodule 206 may reject or ignore one or more of the received datapackets. In one example, when the flow source discovery module 206rejects one or more data packets, the communication module 202 may senda request from to the input datastore 218 to delete one or more of anynumber of data packets if the data packets were previously stored.

During the flow source discovery process, the flow source discoverymodule 206 may discover flow sources of the enterprise network 105 basedon metadata from the data packet. In some embodiments, when the flowsource discovery module 206 discovers and identifies a flow source, thecommunication module 202 may send a request to the flow source datastore222 to update or create a flow source entry within a data structure totrack and identify the flow source as well as any number of attributesand/or metrics.

As attributes associated or metrics with discovery of flow sources aredetermined by the flow source discovery module 206, the attributes ormetrics may include connectivity between the discovered flow source andother flow sources of the enterprise network 105. In some embodiments,the communication module 202 may send to the infrastructure datastore224 a request to create an entity entry or update an existing entityentry in the data structure (e.g., flow source data structure). In theprocess of flow source discovery, the connectivity of entities of theenterprise network may require updating, since the flow source discoveryprocess may uncover new or previously unknown connections of entities ofthe enterprise network 105. A flow source data structure may includeidentified flow sources, attributes and/or metrics of any number of flowsources, roles, related applications, entities that use each flowsource, and/or network topology information indicating when one or moreflow sources communicate, how they perform, which applications, hosts,or entities communicate with the flow sources, and the like.

When the flow source discovery process is complete, the communicationmodule 202 may send a request from the flow source discovery module 206to the flow source datastore 222 to output the discovered flow sourceand their associated attributes (e.g., in a table, chart, graph, or thelike). In some embodiments, the communication module 202 may send therequest from the flow source discovery module 206 to the flow sourcedatastore 222 to provide the discovered flow source and their associatedattributes as the flow source is discovered by the flow source discoverymodule 206. In some embodiments, the communication module 202 mayreceive a query from a user to display a portion of the enterprisenetwork 105, indicate relationships within the enterprise network 105,indicate real-time performance, or the like.

The communication module 202 may receive a result of the flow sourcediscovery process from the flow source discover module 206. The resultof the flow source discovery process module 206 may include data packetsfrom one or more network traffic software platforms such as NetFlowand/or other platforms. In some embodiments, the data packet includesone or more flow records, at least one template record, and/or a packetheader. The one or more flow records provides information associatedwith each flow. In various embodiments, the data packet includes anynumber of template identifiers.

In some embodiments, the communication module 202 may receive a requestfrom the scheduling module 208 to suspend the flow source discoveryprocess when the flow source discovery time frame is over. The flowsource discovery time frame may be suspended or terminated based on asatisfied trigger condition which triggers commencement or suspension ofthe flow source discovery process.

The input module 204 may be configured to initiate the flow sourcediscovery process (e.g., based on receiving a request from the ITadministrator of the enterprise network 105). In some embodiments, theinput module 204 is configured to send the flow source discovery processinitiation request to the flow source discovery module 206. The inputmodule 204 may send a request to the flow source discovery module 206 tocommence or suspend the flow source discovery process.

In some embodiments, the input module 204 receives a schedule of theflow source discovery process. The input module 204 may receive the flowsource discovery process schedule from an example flow source discoveryinterface 600 depicted in FIG. 6 . By interacting with field 610, theflow source discovery process may be scheduled. Pull-down field 620 mayspecify a day of the week, date, time, or the like that the flow sourcediscovery process may be schedule. A start time of the flow sourcediscovery process can be chosen using pull-down field 630 or anycombination of changeable entries.

In response to the output of the flow source discovery process, theinput module 204 may receive information from a user (e.g., ITadministrator of the enterprise network 105). The received informationmay include a list of entities of the switch fabric 130 that the ITadministrator would like to continue monitoring. In some embodiments,the input module 204 may receive from the IT administrator, a secondlist of attributes of the switch fabric which the IT administrator wouldlike to continue monitoring.

The flow source discovery module 206 may manage the flow sourcediscovery process. The flow source discovery module 206 may commence theflow source discovery process when the flow source discovery module 206determines that any number of trigger conditions is satisfied. Forexample, a trigger condition may include the scheduling module 208determining that a current time equals a scheduled flow source discoverystart time. In some embodiments, one of the trigger conditions includesreceiving from the input module 204 a request to commence the flowsource discovery process. Upon the reception of the request to commencethe flow source discovery from the scheduling module 208 or the inputmodule 204, the flow source discovery module 206 may commence the flowsource discovery process.

The flow source discovery module 206 may suspend the flow sourcediscovery process when the flow source discovery module 206 determinesthat a trigger condition is satisfied. A trigger condition may includethe scheduling module 208 determining that a current time equals thescheduled flow source discovery end time. In some embodiments, one ofthe trigger conditions includes receiving from the input module 204 arequest to suspend the flow source discovery process. Upon the receptionof the request to commence the flow source discovery from the schedulingmodule 208 or the input module 204, the flow source discovery module 206may suspend the flow source discovery process.

In various embodiments, the ability to suspend the flow source discoveryprocess, whether an initial discovery process or a subsequent discoveryprocess, enables any number of devices on the enterprise network 105 toreserve computing resources when needed for critical or daily tasks. Theprocess may be suspended based on system utilization, time (e.g.,evenings between 2-5 AM when the system is apt to be less utilized),requirements of other services (e.g., security or backup), weekends, orthe like. In some embodiments, the flow source discovery process may beresumed from where the process was suspended thereby avoiding a need torepeat a portion of the process (e.g., a portion of the network beingexamined for flow sources) that was recently completed.

The flow source discovery module 206 may provide to the IT administratorof the enterprise network 105, the ability to configure which attributesof the flow source that the IT administrator is interested inmonitoring. During an initial flow source discovery process the flowsource discovery module 206 may monitor and provide the set ofattributes or data traffic metrics of discovered flow sources. The setof attributes may include a type of flow source, total byte count,incoming/outgoing byte count, incoming/outgoing bit rate, total packetrate and/or incoming/outgoing endpoint count. In a flow source discoveryprocess subsequent to the initial flow source discovery process, theflow source discovery module 206 may receive from the IT administrator asecond list containing attributes of the switch fabric which the ITadministrator would like to continue monitoring. For example, the ITadministrator may only be interested in monitoring the total packet rateof entities of the switch fabric 130. Based on the lists, the flowsource discovery system 170 may continue to receive or intercept datapackets from flow sources of interest, from specific areas of thenetwork, or the like in order to further assess and provide results ofthe assessment to the requesting entity (e.g., the IT administrator thatprovided the list(s)).

The flow source discovery module 206 may receive data packets from thenetwork traffic integration module 210. The flow source discovery module206 may perform a flow source discovery process using the receivedplurality of data packets. In some embodiments, the flow sourcediscovery module 206 may receive any number of data packets directlyfrom the network traffic analyzing software platform 150.

In some examples, the flow source discovery module 206 may determine ifone or more flow packets comes from a blocked entity of the switchfabric. During an initial flow source discovery process, the flow sourcediscovery module 206 may analyze flow records subsequent to the initialflow source discovery process. The input module 204 may receive from theIT administrator a list of entities of the switch fabric that the ITadministrator would like to continue monitoring and/or a list ofentities of the switch fabric that the IT administrator would not liketo monitor. The input module may send the list to the flow sourcediscovery module 206. The flow source discovery process may ignore orreject flow records or data packets from entities of the switch fabric130 not on the list to monitor (e.g., that are blocked).

For example, the flow source discovery module 206 may provide discoveredflow sources, such as switches 502, 504, and 506 in the form of flowsource entries. The flow source entries may include attributes and/ormetrics of the discovered flow source such as the connectivity of theseswitches and attributes such as type of switch, the incoming/outgoingbit rate, total packet rate, etc. The application discovery system 180may use heuristic analysis to determine that host 512 is taking up amajority server utilization of the server 508, thereby slowing down theweb server application of the enterprise network. The applicationdiscovery system 180 may also determine that the host 512 is running alegacy operating system and that switch 504 is not coupled to any otherentities of the enterprise network 105. The flow source discovery system170 may be used in conjunction to the application discovery system 180to improve the efficiency of server 508 by removing switch 504 from theenterprise network 105 or changing the connectivity of switch 504 to adifferent server (not pictured). In response to the output of thediscovered flow source entries and their associated attributes, the flowsource discovery module 206 may receive from the IT administrator of theenterprise network 105 a list of entities of the switch fabric whichexcludes switch 504.

The flow source discovery module 206 may determine the type of networktraffic analyzing software platform that an incoming data packet comesfrom. This may be determined by recognizing the format of the incomingdata packet. The format of the data packet from a network trafficanalyzing software platform, such as NetFlow may be different from theformat of the data packet from a second network traffic analyzingsoftware platform. In some embodiments, the flow source discovery module206 is capable of recognizing network software analyzing softwareplatforms such as J-Flow, Netstream, Cflow, Rflow, and/or others.

The flow source discovery module 206 may reject data packets and flowrecords. For example, the flow source discovery module 206 may rejectdata packets if the format of the data packets do not match at least onetemplate record or if a flow record of the data packet is from a blockedentity of the switch fabric 130.

The flow source discovery module 206 may assess flow records from datapackets to discover flow sources of the enterprise network 105 based onmetadata from the flow records of the data packet. In response todiscovering a flow source of the enterprise network, the flow sourcediscovery module 206 may send a request to the flow source datastore 222to create or update a flow source entry. The flow source entry mayinclude type of flow source, source IP, and/or a destination IP of flowspassing through the discovered flow source. The flow source discoverymodule 206 may provide information to determine the amount of bandwidthbeing consumed by a specific entity of the switch fabric 130. The flowsource discovery module 206 may determine network services being used inthe enterprise network 105.

The flow source discovery module 206 may determine that the switch 502is connected between the hosts 510 and 514, and the server 508, and theswitch 506 is connected between the server 508 and a plurality of hosts550, 552, 554, and 556. The network traffic integration module 210 maydetermine through heuristic analysis of data flowing to or from anynumber of flow sources that the server 508 may be a web server.

Duplicate flow records may misrepresent the actual amount of trafficreported. For example, in the example system 500, the network trafficintegration module 210 may receive data packets containing flow recordsfrom multiple flow sources (e.g., switch 502 and switch 506). A subsetof the flow records, such as a flow records representing data path 520A,from host 510 to from switch 502 may be duplicated in switch 506. Theflow record representing data path 520A may include a source IP of theIP address of host 510 and a destination IP of the IP address of host550. The network traffic integration module 210 may receive data packetscontaining flow records from switch 506 including a second flow record.The second flow record representing data path 520C may include thesource IP of the IP address of host 510 and the destination IP of the IPaddress of host 550. The flow source discovery module 206 may recognizethat the first flow record and the second flow records are duplicates.The flow source discovery module 206 may deduplicate the duplicate flowrecords (i.e., delete one of the two duplicate flow records orduplication of information from the flow records).

As the flow source discovery module 206 discover flow sources of theenterprise network 105 and their associated attributes and/or metricssuch as connectivity with other entities of the enterprise networkincluding storage device 110 and server/host 120. The flow sourcediscovery module 206 may discover new connections and/or entities of theenterprise network 105. These new connections and/or entities of theenterprise network 105 may be used to determine the infrastructure ofthe enterprise network 105. In some embodiments, the discovery module206 sends a request to infrastructure module 212 which determines theinfrastructure of the network 105 to initiate the infrastructuretopology process. As discussed herein, the discovery module 206 mayreceive information from any number of taps of communication paths(e.g., fiber optic cabling) and assess the information in view of theidentified flow sources to identify and assess connections and/orentities of the enterprise network 105.

The discovery module 206 may perform any of these operations manually(e.g., by a user interacting with a GUI) and/or automatically (e.g.,triggered by one or more of the modules 206-236, discussed herein). Insome embodiments, the discovery module 206 comprises a library ofexecutable instructions, which are executable by one or more processorsfor performing any of the aforementioned management operations. Like theother modules described herein, some or all of the functionality of thediscovery module 206 may be implemented and/or included within one ormore other modules and/or systems.

The scheduling module 208 is configured to receive from the input module204, the schedule of the flow source discovery process and determine thestart time, end time, and time to suspend the flow source discoveryprocess. The user interact with the example flow source discoveryinterface 600 of FIG. 6 to specify the frequency and start time of ascheduled flow source discovery process.

By interacting with field 610, the flow source discovery process may bescheduled. Pull-down field 620 may specify the day of the week that theflow source discovery process may be schedule. A start time of the flowsource discovery process can be chosen using pull-down field 630. Field640 outputs the day and time of the last failed flow source discoveryprocess, while field 650 outputs the day and time of the last successfulflow source discovery process. A flow source discovery process may beconsidered a failure if the flow source discovery process is not able toproceed. The flow source discovery process may not be able to proceed ifthe flow source discovery system 170 is not able to connect with thenetwork traffic analyzing software platform 150, or if the networktraffic analyzing software platform 150 is unable to entities of theswitch fabric 130.

The network traffic integration module 210 may receive from networktraffic analyzing software platform 150, IP network traffic data from anetwork traffic software platform. NetFlow is an example network trafficsoftware platform integrated within Cisco routers. There may be anynumber of different versions of the NetFlow software.

The network traffic integration module 210 may send a request to storethe received network traffic data in input datastore 218. In someembodiments, the received network traffic data may be in the format ofdata packets.

Software platforms may log and/or transmit flow records which, in someembodiments, is a summary of the interaction between two IP addresses.The network traffic integration module 210 may retrieve flow recordsbetween IP addresses of the enterprise system 100 from switches enabledwith network traffic software (e.g., by calling an API of the networktraffic software within the switch).

These flow records may be analyzed by the flow source discovery module206 to determine possible applications and possible network endpoints.In some embodiments, the network traffic integration module 210 isconfigured to retrieve flow records from network traffic softwareplatform(s) during scheduled retrieval periods. The scheduled retrievalmay be configured by the scheduling module 208. The network trafficintegration module 210 may retrieve, from the input module, flow recordsfrom a specific IP address. In some embodiments, these specific IPaddresses may represent flow source important to the operations of theenterprise system 100.

The infrastructure module 212 may determine a model of theinfrastructure of the network 105 (e.g., topology of flow sources orswitches and how the communicate with each other, entities, and/or hostswithin the enterprise network 105. The infrastructure module 212 may aidusers of the IPM appliance 160 with a visual representation of theinfrastructure of the enterprise network 105. The infrastructure module212 may create an infrastructure topology view and indicate how aspecific router is connected to other entities of the network. FIG. 7depicts an example topology 700 according to some embodiments. Topology700 depicts entities such as storage devices 710 and 712, hosts 720 and722, switches 730 and 732, and server 740. In some embodiments, thedetermination of the infrastructure model of the enterprise network 105may be optional.

In addition to discovering the entities of the infrastructure, theattributes of the entities of the enterprise network 105 within theinfrastructure may also be discovered. In some embodiments, theattributes of the entities of the enterprise network 105 may be utilizedin the application heuristics for discovering applications.

The alarm module 214 may create alarms based on attributes of entitiesof the switch fabric 130. The alarm module 214 may provide a method forthe IT administrator to monitor the health and performance of theentities of the switch fabric. In some embodiments, the alarm module 214is a first line of defense by informing the IT administrator of theenterprise network 105 potential network anomalies such as DDoS attacks,SPAM, and abnormal downloads/uploads.

FIG. 8 depicts an example flow source discovery alarm interface 800according to some embodiments. The alarms listed in interface 800 areassociated with link errors. In one example, the alarm module 214 maygenerate a loss of sync alarm if the IT administrator interacts withcheckbox 810, and specify a upper threshold in checkbox 820. In someembodiments, an alarm criterion for the loss of sync alarm is satisfiedwhen there are greater than 0 occurrences of a loss of synchronizationon a particular entity of the switch fabric 130. When the alarmcriterion for the loss of sync alarm is satisfied, the alarm module 214may send a request to the reporting module 216 to send a notification tothe IT administrator of the trigger of this alarm. In variousembodiments, the notification may be in the form of an email, a pop-upscreen on the IPM appliance interface or an automated phone call.

An IT administrator may interact with checkbox 812 and specify an upperthreshold in checkbox 822 to set a loss of signal threshold. In someembodiments, an alarm criterion for the loss of a signal is satisfiedwhen there are greater than 0 occurrences of a loss of signal on aparticular entity of the switch fabric 130. When the alarm criterion forthe loss of signal alarm is satisfied, the alarm module 214 may send arequest to the reporting module 216 to send a notification to the ITadministrator (or other entity or digital device) of the trigger of thisalarm. In various embodiments, the notification may be in the form of anemail, a pop-up screen on the IPM appliance interface, text message, oran automated phone call.

In some embodiments, an alarm criterion for a link reset alarm issatisfied when there are greater than 0 occurrences of a link reset on aparticular entity of the switch fabric 130. When the alarm criterion forthe link reset alarm is satisfied, the alarm module 214 may send arequest to the reporting module 216 to send a notification to the ITadministrator of the trigger of this alarm. In various embodiments, thenotification may be in the form of an email, a pop-up screen on the IPMappliance interface, text message, or an automated phone call.

In some embodiments, an alarm criterion for the link failure alarm issatisfied when there are greater than 0 occurrences of a link failure ona particular entity of the switch fabric 130. When the alarm criterionfor the link failure alarm is satisfied, the alarm module 214 may send arequest to the reporting module 216 to send a notification to the ITadministrator of the trigger of this alarm. In various embodiments, thenotification may be in the form of an email, a pop-up screen on the IPMappliance interface, text message, or an automated phone call.

In some embodiments, the alarm module 214 may generate an overall linkalarm only when all four of the previous four alarm criteria aresatisfied. When the alarm criterion for the overall link alarm issatisfied, the alarm module 214 may send a request to the reportingmodule 216 to send a notification to the IT administrator (or otherentity or digital device) of the trigger of this alarm. In variousembodiments, the notification may be in the form of an email, a pop-upscreen on the IPM appliance interface, text message, or an automatedphone call.

In some embodiments, the alarm module 214 may create alarms based onattributes or metrics of entities of the enterprise network 105including entities of the switch fabric 130. For example, the alarmmodule 214 may create a threshold when a certain metric is exceeded,when a certain metric does not exceed a threshold, or when the certainmetric satisfies a threshold.

The reporting module 216 may receive a request from the flow sourcedatastore 222 to provide the discovered flow source entries. In responseto receiving the request from the flow source datastore 222, thereporting module 216 may organize and output the data traffic metrics ina meaningful way. For example, flow sources may be output topconversations as seen by each software platform, top IP address by totalbit rate, and top IP address by receive or transmit bit rate. In someembodiments, the reporting module provides the output in real time.

The reporting module 216 may provide discovered flow source entries inthe form of a chart, with each flow source entry, their associatedattributes of the application and entities displayed in text form. Insome embodiments, the reporting module 216 may provide the discoveredflow source entry in the form of a topology, showing a representative ofthe discovered flow source and entities of the enterprise networkconnected to the discovered flow source. FIG. 7 depicts an exampleapplication topology 700 according to some embodiments. Applicationtopology 700 depicts entities, such as host 620, 710, 730, and 740,storage devices vSAN 610 and 750, and server 760. These entitiescomprise an example application such as a VDI application.

In some embodiments, users may interact with the discovered applicationentries in a discovered flow source chart by filtering the results ofthe chart. For example, the discovered flow source chart may be filteredto only show storage devices coupled to the discovered flow source, theresults may be further filtered by specifying storage arrays of aparticular size.

The reporting module 216 may provide in the form of charts or graphs,attributes associated with entities of the switch fabric, attributeswhich may include a top IP address by total bit rate, total packet rate,top conversations, and top receive/transmit bit rate. FIG. 9 depicts anexample output 900 of attributes associated with entities of the switchfabric, or the output of the flow source discovery process according tosome embodiments.

For example, the reporting module 216 may be configured to provide area910, illustrating top network conversations as seen by NetFlow or otherplatform in a chart form. The reporting module 216 may provide area 915,top network conversations in a graph form. The reporting module 216 mayprovide area 920, top IPs by total bit rate in a chart form. Thereporting module 216 may provide area 925, top IPs by total bit rate ina graph form. The reporting module 216 may provide area 930, top IPs byreceive bit rate in a chart form. The reporting module 216 may providearea 940, top IPs by transmit bit rate in a chart form.

The input datastore 218 may receive any number of data packets from thenetwork traffic analyzing software platform 150 and store any number ofthe data packets. The input datastore 218 may receive from the flowsource discovery module 206 a request for any number of data packets.

The attributes datastore 220 may be any structure and/or structuressuitable for storing data entries or records (e.g., an active database,a relational database, a self-referential database, a table, a matrix,an array, a flat file, a documented-oriented storage system, anon-relational No-SQL system, an FTS-management system such asLucene/Solar, and the like). In some embodiments, the attributesdatastore 220 is configured to receive the attributes or properties ofentities of the enterprise network 105. Attributes and/or metricsassociated with entities of the switch fabric may be received from theflow source discovery module 206. In some embodiments, the attributesdatastore 220 may store a list containing entities of the switch fabricthat the IT administrator wants to continue monitoring. In variousembodiments, the attributes datastore 220 may store the list ofattributes of the switch fabric which the IT administrator would like tocontinue monitoring.

The flow source datastore 222 may be any structure and/or structuressuitable for storing data entries or records (e.g., an active database,a relational database, a self-referential database, a table, a matrix,an array, a flat file, a documented-oriented storage system, anon-relational No-SQL system, an FTS-management system such asLucene/Solar, and the like). The flow source datastore 222 may receive arequest from the communication module 202 to create or update a flowsource entry. The flow source entry may include attributes and/ormetrics of the discovered flow source. Attributes and/or metrics of thediscovered flow sources may be organized to obtain statistics or metricssuch as top conversations as seen by each software platform, top IPaddress by total bit rate, and top IP address by receive or transmit bitrate.

The flow source datastore 222 may receive the request from thecommunication module 202 to provide the discovered flow source. In turn,the flow source datastore 222 may send a request to the reporting module216 to provide the discovered flow sources along with their associatedattributes.

The infrastructure datastore 224 may be any structure and/or structuressuitable for storing data entries or records (e.g., an active database,a relational database, a self-referential database, a table, a matrix,an array, a flat file, a documented-oriented storage system, anon-relational No-SQL system, an FTS-management system such asLucene/Solar, and the like). The infrastructure datastore 224 may storeany number of entity entries. Each entity entry may represent one ormore entities of the enterprise network.

The template datastore 226 may be any structure and/or structuressuitable for storing data entries or records (e.g., an active database,a relational database, a self-referential database, a table, a matrix,an array, a flat file, a documented-oriented storage system, anon-relational No-SQL system, an FTS-management system such asLucene/Solar, and the like). In some embodiments, the template datastore226 is configured to receive the request from the communication module202 to create the template entry. Flow records from routers/switchesfrom different manufacturers may be differentiated with differenttemplate records. In some embodiments, the template record within a datapacket may not necessarily indicate the format of flow records withinthe same packet.

A module may be hardware or software. In some embodiments, the modulemay configure one or more processors to perform functions associatedwith the module. Although different modules are discussed herein, itwill be appreciated that the content delivery system 106 may include anynumber of modules performing any or all functionality discussed herein.

FIG. 3 depicts a flowchart 300 of a flow source discovery process of anenterprise network according to some embodiments. In step 302, thecommunication module 202 may facilitate execution of the flow sourcediscovery process by sending a request to initiate or re-initiate theflow source discovery process from the scheduling module 208 to the flowsource discovery module 206.

In some embodiments, The flow source discovery module 206 may receive arequest to start the flow source discovery process when any number oftrigger conditions are satisfied. For example, if a current time equalsa predetermined start time, a trigger condition may be satisfied.

In some embodiments, the input module 204 may receive the flow sourcediscovery process schedule from an example flow source discoveryinterface 600 of FIG. 6 . Pull-down field 620 may specify the day of theweek that the flow source discovery process may be schedule. A starttime of the flow source discovery process can be chosen using pull-downfield 630. In some embodiments, the flow source discovery interface mayinclude a field in which the user may use to specify a duration of theflow source discovery process.

In optional step 304, the flow source discovery module 206 may determineany number of attributes and/or metrics of discovered flow sources tomonitor and provide. The flow source discovery module 206 may provide aset of attributes of discovered flow sources. The set of attributesand/or metrics may include: type of flow source, total byte count,incoming/outgoing byte count, incoming/outgoing bit rate, total packetrate and/or incoming/outgoing endpoint count. In subsequent flow sourcediscovery process, the flow source discovery module 206 may monitor andoutput a subset of attributes of discovered flow sources.

In step 306, the network traffic integration module 210 may receive IPnetwork traffic data from any number of network traffic analyzingsoftware platforms 150 and/or Taps. The IP network traffic data may bein data packets. Data packets collected from different routers andswitches with different network traffic analyzing software platforms maybe in different formats. In some embodiments, the network trafficintegration module 210 may send a request to the input datastore 218 tostore any number of the data packet entries associated with each of thedata packets received from the network traffic analyzing softwareplatform 150. The flow source discovery module 206 may receive anynumber of the data packets from the network traffic integration module210. In various embodiments, the flow source discovery module 206 mayreceive any number of data packets from the input datastore 218.

In optional step 308, the flow source discovery module 206 may determineany number of entities of the switch fabric to monitor. In an initialflow source discovery process, the flow source discovery module 206 mayanalyze flow records associated with all entities of the switch fabric.In response to the output of the initial flow source discovery process,the input module 204 may receive from the IT administrator of theenterprise network 105, a list of entities of the switch fabric that theIT administrator would like to continue monitoring. The flow sourcediscovery module 206 may send a request to the attributes datastore 220to store the list. In subsequent flow source discovery process, the flowsource discovery module 206 may ignore or reject flow records fromentities of the switch fabric not listed in the first list.

In step 310, the flow source discovery module 206 may analyze any numberof received data packets and determine a flow source of flow records. Insome embodiments, the flow source discovery module 206 does not begin toanalyze any number of data packets until the end of the time frame. Invarious embodiments, the flow source discovery module 206 analyzes anynumber of data packets as it is being received by the flow sourcediscovery module 206. Further details of step 310 can be seen in steps402 through 430 of FIG. 4 .

In step 312, the reporting module 216 may provide any number of flowsource entries to an interface or report. For example, the reportingmodule 234 may provide any number of flow source entries in the form ofa chart, with each discovered flow source entry as well as attributesassociated with discovered flow sources displayed in text form. In someembodiments, entities of the enterprise network 105 found along the datapath associated with the discovered flow source entry as well asattributes associated with each entity may be displayed in text or inthe form of an infrastructure topology view.

In step 314, the infrastructure module 212 may build or update theinfrastructure of enterprise network 105. In some embodiments, as anynumber of flow source entries are created or updated, the infrastructuremodule 212 may obtain more information regarding the connectivity ofentities of the enterprise network 105.

FIG. 7 depicts an example topology 700 according to some embodiments.Topology 700 depicts entities such as storage devices 710 and 712, hosts720 and 722, switches 730 and 732, and server 740. The infrastructuremodule 212 may provide other information besides the connectivity ofentities in the enterprise network 105. For example, the representationof entities of the enterprise network 105 may include alarms or alertsassociated with one or more entities, a clock graphic on the bottom leftcorner of host 722 indicates that there is an alarm associated with thatparticular host.

In some embodiments, once initiated, the flow source discovery processmay continue until it is completed. In step 316, the flow sourcediscovery module 206 may determine that the flow source discoveryprocess is complete after retrieving traffic data from the one or morenetwork traffic analyzing software platform for a fixed interval oftime. In various embodiments, the flow source discovery module 206 maydetermine that the flow source discovery process is complete when theflow source discovery time frame is over.

In step 318, in response to the displaying or report any number of flowsource entries, the input module 204 may receive information from the ITadministrator. The received feedback may include a first list containingany number of entities of the switch fabric that the IT administratorwants to continue monitoring. In some embodiments, the received feedbackincludes a second list containing any number of attributes of the switchfabric which the IT administrator would like to continue monitoring.

The second list may be used in step 304 to determine any number ofattributes or metrics of discovered flow sources to monitor and providein subsequent flow source discovery processes. The first list may beused in step 308 to determine any number of entities of the switchfabric to monitor and provide in subsequent flow source discoveryprocesses.

FIG. 4 is a flow source discovery process in some embodiments. In step402 of FIG. 4 , the flow source discovery module 206 may identify thetype of data packet for each of a number of incoming data packets basedon format of the data packets.

For example, sFlow data packets may be generated by a variety ofrouter/switch manufacturers. sFlow is a stateless packet protocol thatis aimed at monitoring high speed networks. With sFlow data there is nonotion of aggregating flow records into a data packet. Each sFlow datapacket includes data components such as sFlow sample and counter record.The sFlow sample may include information such as packet length, packetencapsulation and information about the path such as the source IPaddress and destination IP address. The counter record may includeinformation about the data packet sampling rate. For example, every Ndata packets of a particular router, where N is the sampling rate. Thesampling rate may be configured by the router or switch which generatesthe sFlow data packet.

As discussed herein, NetFlow data packets, as opposed to sFlow datapackets may be generated by a Cisco routers/switches. In someembodiments, the NetFlow data packet includes at least a packet headerand at least one data flowset. The at least one data flowset may includea template flowset and a data flowset. The template flowset may includea collection of one or more template records. The data flowset being acollection of one or more flow records. The flow record documents thecommunication between entities of the enterprise network. The flowrecord may be provided by any number of flow sources found along thedata path. Each flow record may include statistics or metrics regardingthe flow such as the source IP address, destination IP address, next hopaddress, number of bytes, and the duration of the communication. In someembodiments, the flow source may aggregate any number of flows betweenthe same source IP address and the destination IP address into onesingle flow with an aggregate of statistics or metrics.

While FIG. 4 contemplates differentiating sFlow data packets fromNetFlow data packets and other types of packets, it will be appreciatedthat systems and methods discussed herein may work with any kind of datapacket from any kind of network traffic analyzing platforms. The flowsource discovery module 206 may receive a data packet from anothernetwork traffic analyzing platform and identify one or more templates touse to attempt to parse the data packet. Each network traffic analyzingplatform may be associated with one or more templates. As such, anynumber of data packets from any number of network traffic analyzingplatforms may be parsed using different templates and information (e.g.,flow source identification, metrics, and/or attributes associated withone or more flow sources) may be identified, stored, and related toother flow sources of the switch fabric.

Returning to step 404, the flow source discovery module 206 mayrecognize a particular data packet as a sFlow data packet from a packetheader using an sFlow template to parse the particular data packet.

If the flow source discovery module 206 determines that incoming datapacket is an sFlow data packet by comparing all or some of the data inthe data packet (or the data packet itself) to a template then the flowsource discovery process proceeds to step 404. In one example, the flowsource discovery module 206 may assess the data packet to determine ifthe data packet is an sFlow data packet or may apply one or more sFlowtemplates to parse information from the data packet to determine if thedata packet is an sFlow data packet.

In step 404, the flow source discovery module 206 may determine if theincoming data packet contains is an sFlow data packet, then the flowsource discovery process may proceed to step 406.

In step 406, the flow source discovery module 206 determines if theincoming sFlow data packet is an sFlow sample or a counter record byparsing the data in the packet using one or more templates. The flowsource discovery module 206 may determine if the incoming sFlow datapacket is in the format of the sFlow sample or the counter record.

If the flow source discovery module 206 determines that the incomingsFlow data packet is not an sFlow sample or a counter record, the flowsource discovery module 206 may reject or ignore the sFlow data packet.The flow source discovery process may subsequently proceed to step 408.In step 408, the flow source discovery module 206 may optionally send arequest to the input datastore 218 to delete the data packet entryassociated with the incoming data packet (if the data packet entry wasstored).

If the flow source discovery module 206 determines that the incomingsFlow data packet is an sFlow sample or a counter record, the flowsource discovery module 206 may validate the incoming sFlow data packet,and the flow source discovery process proceeds to step 430.

In step 410, the flow source discovery module 206 may determine if theincoming data packet is a NetFlow data packet. In some embodiments, theflow source discovery module 206 determines that the incoming datapacket is a NetFlow data packet by comparing the format of the incomingdata packet based on one or more templates.

In step 412, the flow source discovery module 206 may determine if moreinformation is required for the incoming NetFlow data packet. In someembodiments, the flow source discovery module 206 may compare the packetheader and/or packets of the incoming NetFlow data packet to one or moretemplates stored in the template datastore 226. As discussed herein,flow records from routers/switches from different manufacturers may bedifferentiated by format and, as a result different template records maybe required to parse the information depending on the format.

The flow source discovery module 206 may compare the packet header orpacket to one or more templates in order to retrieve and/or parseinformation from the packet header or packet. The flow source discoverymodule 206 may then assess the retrieved information to determine if theretrieved information is of the type needed or if the retrievedinformation is unrecognizable (e.g., gibberish).

The flow source discovery module 206 may determine that no additionalinformation is required to determine the flow source in the NetFlow datapacket because the template to parse the information of the packetheader and/or packets is accurate (e.g., the template is recognized).This may occur if the flow source discovery module 206 determines thatthe incoming NetFlow data packet contains a packet header and at leastone data flowset, then the flow source discovery process in step 414.

If the flow source discovery module 206 does not get intelligibleinformation by parsing the packet header and/or packets with a retrievetemplate, then the flow source discovery module 206 may determine thatadditional information is required to determine the flow source in theNetFlow data packet in step 416. This may occur if the flow sourcediscovery module 206 does not recognize the packet header.

In some embodiments, if the flow source discovery module 206 recognizesthe packet header of the incoming NetFlow data packet based on atemplate, the flow source discovery process proceeds to step 430 and theflow source discovery module 206 may extract the flow source from theincoming NetFlow data packet. In various embodiments, if the flow sourcediscovery module 206 does not recognize the packet header of theincoming NetFlow data packet, the flow source discovery process proceedsto step 408 where the flow source discovery module 206 may reject orignore the incoming NetFlow data packet and send the request to theinput datastore 218 to delete the data packet entry associated with theincoming NetFlow data packet.

In step 416, the flow source discovery module 206 may determine if theincoming NetFlow data packet needs a new or different template record.In some embodiments the flow source discovery module 206 may attempt toparse data from the data packet or data packet header using any numberof templates. If information is retrieved from the data packet or datapacket header using one of the templates in step 418, then theinformation within the packet or packet header may be parsed in step420.

In some embodiments, the incoming NetFlow data packet may not require apacket header. In various embodiments, the incoming NetFlow data packetcontains one or more flow records, in which case a template record isnot required to determine the flow source associated with the flowrecord. The flow source discovery process may proceed to step 430 andthe flow source discovery module 206 may extract the flow source fromthe incoming NetFlow data packet. If the flow source discovery module206 determines that the incoming NetFlow data requires a templaterecord, then the flow source discovery process may proceed to step 418.

In step 418, the flow source discovery module 206 may determine if theincoming NetFlow data packet includes a template record. If the flowsource discovery module 206 determines that the incoming NetFlow datapacket does not recognize the template record which makes up a part ofthe incoming NetFlow data packet, the flow source discovery process mayproceed to step 408 (e.g., rejecting or ignoring the packet). The flowsource discovery module 206 may determine if the template record of theincoming NetFlow data packet matches one of any number of templaterecords stored in the template datastore 226. The flow source discoverymodule 206 may reject the incoming NetFlow data packet and send therequest to the input datastore 218 to delete the data packet entryassociated with the incoming NetFlow data packet. In some embodiments,the flow source discovery module 206 may wait for a predetermined periodof time after not finding a match for the template record of theincoming NetFlow data packet to one of the template records stored inthe template datastore 226 before rejecting the incoming NetFlow datapacket.

In step 420, the flow source discovery module 206 may parse the incomingNetFlow data packet. In some embodiments, in order to parse the flowsource from the incoming NetFlow data packet, the flow source discoverymodule 206 may require some information about how the packet isformatted, this information may be provided by the template record. Byparsing the incoming NetFlow data packet, the flow source discoverymodule 206 may extract any number of flowsets which make up the incomingNetFlow data packet. Any number of flowsets may include one or moretemplate flowset and/or one or more data flowset. Once the flow sourcediscovery module 206 has completed the parsing of the incoming NetFlowdata packet, the flow source discovery process may proceed to step 422.

In step 422, the flow source discovery module 206 may determine if oneof the flowsets is the template flowset. If the flowset is the templateflowset, the template record may be extracted from the template flowset, and the flow source discovery process may proceed to step 426. Ifthe flowset is not a template flowset, then the flowset is the dataflowset, and the flow source discovery process may proceed to step 424.

In step 424, the flow source discovery module 206 may extract the flowrecord from the data flowset and validate the flow record. In someembodiments, the flow source discovery module 206 may validate the flowrecord by checking that the attributes flow source associated with theflow record is a valid router or switch hardware. Furthermore, the flowsource discovery module 206 may confirm that the attributes associatedwith the flow source. The attributes of the flow source may include atype of flow source, name of the flow source, total byte count,incoming/outgoing byte count, incoming/outgoing bit rate, total packetrate, and/or incoming/outgoing endpoint count. In some embodiments, theflow source discovery module 206 may deduplicate flow records fromredundant flow sources.

In step 426, the communication module 202 may facilitate the flow sourcediscovery process by sending a request from the flow source discoverymodule 206 to the template datastore 226 to create or update a templateentry. What is this

In step 428, the flow source discovery module 206 may compare the routeror switch hardware from which the flow record comes from to the firstlist of blocked entities of the switch fabric. The first list may beprovided by the IT administrator and may be stored in the attributesdatastore 220. If the router or switch from which the flow record comesfrom is not on the first list, then the flow source discovery module 206may send a request to the input datastore 218 to delete the data packetentry associated with the incoming data packet.

In step 430, the communication module 202 may facilitate the flow sourcediscovery process by sending a request from the flow source discoverymodule 206 to the flow source datastore 222 to create or update a flowsource entry. The flow source entry may include type of flow source,source IP, destination IP of flows passing through the discovered flowsource, and entities of the enterprise network 105 associated with thedata flow.

FIG. 10 is a block diagram illustrating entities of an example machineable to read instructions from a machine-readable medium and executethose instructions in a processor to perform the machine processingtasks discussed herein, such as the engine operations discussed above.Specifically, FIG. 10 shows a diagrammatic representation of a machinein the example form of a computer system 1000 within which instructions1024 (e.g., software) for causing the machine to perform any one or moreof the methodologies discussed herein may be executed, in alternativeembodiments, the machine operates as a standalone device or may beconnected (e.g., networked) to other machines, for instance via theInternet. In a networked deployment, the machine may operate in thecapacity of a server machine or a client machine in a server-clientnetwork environment, or as a peer machine in a peer-to-peer ordistributed) network environment.

The machine may be a server computer, a client computer, a personalcomputer (PC), a tablet PC, a set-top box (STB), a personal digitalassistant (PDA), a cellular telephone, a. smartphone, a web appliance, anetwork router, switch or bridge, or any machine capable of executinginstructions 1024 (sequential or otherwise) that specify actions to betaken by that machine. Further, while only a single machine isillustrated, the term “machine” shall also be taken to include anycollection of machines that individually or jointly execute instructions1024 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein.

The example computer system 1000 includes a processor 1002 (e.g., acentral processing unit (CPU), a graphics processing unit (GPU), adigital signal processor (DSP), one or more application specificintegrated circuits (ASICs), one or more radio-frequency integratedcircuits (RFICs), or any combination of these), a main memory 1004, anda static memory 1006, which are configured to communicate with eachother via a bus 1008. The computer system 1000 may further includegraphics display unit 1010 (e.g., a plasma display panel (PDP), a liquidcrystal display (LCD), a projector, or a cathode ray tube (CRT)). Thecomputer system 1000 may also include alphanumeric input device 1012(e.g., a keyboard), a cursor control device 1014 (e.g., a mouse, atrackball, a joystick, a motion sensor, or other pointing instrument), adata store 1016, a signal generation device 1018 (e.g., a speaker), anaudio input device 1026 (e.g., a microphone) and a network interfacedevice 1020, which also are configured to communicate via the bus 1008.

The data store 1016 includes a machine-readable medium 1022 on which isstored instructions 1024 (e.g., software) embodying any one or more ofthe methodologies or functions described herein. The instructions 1024(e.g., software) may also reside, completely or at least partially,within the main memory 1004 or within the processor 1002 (e.g., within aprocessor's cache memory) during execution thereof by the computersystem 1000, the main memory 1004 and the processor 1002 alsoconstituting machine-readable media. The instructions 1024 (e.g.,software) may be transmitted or received over a network (not shown) vianetwork interface 1020.

While machine-readable medium 1022 is shown in an example embodiment tobe a single medium, the term “machine-readable medium” should be takento include a single medium or multiple media (e.g., a centralized ordistributed database, or associated caches and servers) able to storeinstructions instructions 1024). The term “machine-readable medium”shall also be taken to include any medium that is capable of storinginstructions (e.g., instructions 1024) for execution by the machine andthat cause the machine to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdisclosed herein. The term “machine-readable medium” includes, butshould not be limited to, data repositories in the form of solid-statememories, optical media, and magnetic media.

In this description, the term “module” refers to computational logic forproviding the specified functionality, A module can be implemented inhardware firmware and/or software. Where the modules described hereinare implemented as software, the module can be implemented as astandalone program, but can also be implemented through other means, forexample as part of a larger program, as any number of separate programs,or as one or more statically or dynamically linked libraries. It will beunderstood that the named modules described herein represent oneembodiment, and other embodiments may include other modules. Inaddition, other embodiments may lack modules described herein and/ordistribute the described functionality among the modules in a differentmanner. Additionally, the functionalities attributed to more than onemodule can be incorporated into a single module. In an embodiment wherethe modules as implemented by software, they are stored on a computerreadable persistent storage device (e.g., hard disk), loaded into thememory, and executed by one or more processors as described above inconnection with FIG. 10 . Alternatively, hardware or software modulesmay be stored elsewhere within a computing system.

As referenced herein, a computer or computing system includes hardwareelements used for the operations described here regardless of specificreference in FIG. 10 to such elements, including for example one or moreprocessors, high speed memory, hard disk storage and backup, networkinterfaces and protocols, input devices for data entry, and outputdevices for display, printing, or other presentations of data. Numerousvariations from the system architecture specified herein are possible.The entities of such systems and their respective functionalities can becombined or redistributed.

1. A system comprising: one or more processors; memory containinginstructions configured to control the one or more processors to:receive a period of time for flow source discovery of an enterprisenetwork; receive a plurality of flow packets from network trafficanalyzing platforms, the network traffic analyzing platforms being incommunication with the enterprise network, the plurality of flow packetsindicating network traffic into and out of flow sources of theenterprise network, at least one flow source of the flow sources of theenterprise network being a router of switch fabric integrated within theenterprise network; for each particular flow packet of the plurality offlow packets: identify the particular flow packet of the plurality offlow packets as belonging to one of at least two flow packet types basedat least in part on a format of the particular flow packet; if theparticular flow packet is an sFlow flow packet, determine if theparticular flow packet is an sFlow sample, an sFlow counter record, or athird sFlow packet type; if the particular flow packet is the sFlowsample or the sFlow counter record, identify a flow source of theparticular flow packet and at least one metric of the network trafficdata, the flow source being one of a plurality of flow sources of theenterprise network, and update a flow source data structure to includethe identified flow source and the at least one metric of the networktraffic data; if the particular flow packet is the third sFlow packettype, ignore the particular flow packet; and if the particular flowpacket is a second flow packet type, the second flow packet type beingdifferent from an sFlow flow packet type: if the particular flow packetis of a format that matches one of a plurality of template recordsstored in a template datastore, identify the flow source associated withthe particular flow packet and at least one metric of the networktraffic data, and update the flow source data structure to include theidentified flow source and the at least one metric of the networktraffic data; and if the format of the particular flow packet does notmatch one of the plurality of template records, ignore the flowparticular packet; and after termination of the period of time, outputthe flow source data structure, the flow source data structure combininginformation from the sFlow flow packets and information from the flowpackets of the second flow packet type, the flow source data structureindicating a plurality of flow sources including the identified flowsources as well as a plurality of attributes of the network traffic databased on the at least one metric of the network traffic data of theplurality of flow packets, the flow source data structure enabling anoperator of the enterprise network to control and monitor networktraffic of the enterprise network.